Intensity A Role Lange Plays In Life

NEW YORK — In Sweet Dreams, Jessica Lange plays the part of Patsy Cline, the ebullient, freewheeling country singer who recorded such early-1960s hits as ''Crazy'' and ''I Fall to Pieces.''

Intensely private and so self-conscious about her voice that she doesn't even sing in the shower, Lange said the persona of Cline could not be more remote from herself.

But it was just this that attracted her to the role.

''She was direct,'' said Lange during an interview at her suite in the Carlyle Hotel here, where -- five months pregnant and with only a trace of eye shadow -- she looked radiant.

''There was nothing hidden or neurotic or withheld,'' Lange said. ''Those are great qualities, something I never played before -- tremendous ranges in emotion that last 30 to 40 seconds. Nothing harbored. Like a firecracker going off all the time. I felt that at this time in my life, it was a good exercise as a person to play this character.''

Sweet Dreams playing in Central Florida at Fashion Square Cinema and Interstate Mall 6 theaters chronicles the life of Cline, who started singing in the local taverns of northern Virginia, was discovered by a Nashville agent and performed at the Grand Ole Opry. She was killed at age 30 in a plane crash that ironically catapulted her to a greater celebrity in death than she ever enjoyed in life.

At the heart of the film is Cline's stormy relationship with her second husband, Charlie Dick (played by Ed Harris), who is depicted as being alternately delighted and defeated by his wife's success. The two share a passionate -- at times violent -- union replete with shouting, bickering and taunting.

With her hair dark brown and knotted with spray and intentionally 10 pounds heavier, Lange appears buxom in Sweet Dreams and far more earthy than the blonde, ethereal beauty she has portrayed in such films as Tootsie and King Kong.

Yet as remote as Lange said she found the persona of Patsy Cline -- and in particular the singer's absence of vanity -- Lange said she identified instantly with the overwrought, self-destructive streak of her romantic passions.

''It was familiar,'' Lange said. ''I saw it very clearly.''

Lange, who has always been reticent about her romantic liaisons, said that until recently her perpetual quest for intensity had plagued her own romantic life.

''It was a trap for me,'' she said. ''As long as it was passionate. Either negative or positive. Then I knew it was love. As long as it was extreme. That was its validity. As soon as anything became too settled, too regular, too placid, I'd have to get in there with the Mixmaster to make sure things were still cooking.''

Lange said that since she began living with Sam Shepard, the actor and playwright, all that has changed. The couple alternate between Shepard's home in New Mexico and Lange's log cabin on a lake in Minnesota.

They are in New York for the next several months as Shepard mounts his latest play, A Lie of the Mind. Lange's 4-year-old daughter, Alexandra, whose father is Mikhail Baryshnikov, is with them. Lange and Shepard's baby is due in January, and although they have no specific plans to marry, she said that marriage to Shepard was ''an absolute possibility.''

Unlike her part in the movie Country, which she co-produced, Lange said she came to play the role of Patsy Cline almost by accident.

She had barely heard of the singer when her agent sent her a copy of Robert Getchell's script, and Lange said she was instantly drawn to Cline's zestful, childlike personality. She also had been eager to act in a love story and was intrigued that Cline's biography was organized around her relationship with her husband.

Portraying Cline, Lange said, was ''the most fun I've ever had.'' She said that she found the part ''liberating'' because, among other things, it forced her to sing -- something she has been reluctant to do since childhood. Lange described her voice tersely as being ''disappointing.'' Although the entire vocal portion of the film's soundtrack is composed of recordings by Cline, Lange would belt out the songs herself during the frequent scenes in which Cline is portrayed on stage.

She spoke of the difficulty in preparing for the role because, beyond still photographs of Cline, who died in 1963, and several old television clippings, there was little tangible evidence of how the singer behaved.

It was Cline's mother, Hilda Hensley (portrayed in the film by Ann Wedgeworth), who provided Lange with the one detail around which she found she could focus Cline.

It was just a simple movement -- how Cline would gesture behind her back to the musicians -- but Lange said it helped her crystallize the character's stage persona.

Lange said she believed the role of Patsy Cline was the most ''complete'' she has ever played and among the most instructive.